Jamie Briggs MP

Jamie Briggs, Federal Liberal MP for Mayo joins us. Jamie Briggs, good morning to you. 

 

Good morning Matt and Dave. 

 

Jamie Briggs, we’ve spoken to Chris Bowen, the Immigration Minister’s office, he’s not available for interview this morning. They say there’s no intention to open new detention centres or expand existing centres. Where are the people going to go? Are they going to go to places like Inverbrackie? 

 

Well obviously there is capacity already at Inverbrackie, I think there’s a report today that there’s 150 currently there, although that number has moved around. At one point earlier in the year it was about 300, and that’s understandable. It depends on the amount of people arriving and the processing times and how many are there. But there is an important point here which is that Chris Bowen has ruled out very clearly to the community, at the community meeting in November in Lobethal; in writing to me on two occasions that he will not expand beyond 400 in number. Now obviously we need confirmation to this position given this latest stuff-up from the Gillard Government with their border protection policies. 

 

Well you heard what people were saying to Spence Denny this morning. It seems as though there are people up around Inverbrackie who are pretty laid back about the whole thing, they don’t mind. 

 

Well look I don’t think that frankly that’s the issue. I mean I understand there are different views in the community and listening to those vox-pops with Jim, who is very good person, I agree with nearly everything he said. The point here is that, let’s not forget the community was never told that this facility was going to go ahead. It was told after it was announced. There was no consultation. There was a series of promises about the benefits to the local economy which just have not occurred, and it is costing a fortune. $30 million already has been spent, and that is in the first six months of its operation. And people are angry about that. 

 

Well maybe that’s Tony Abbott’s fault. Maybe if Tony Abbott and the Coalition had supported the Prime Minister’s Malaysian proposal, we wouldn’t be in this situation. 

 

This is a fascinating line that the Labor Party is trying to use. They changed the law. In September 2008, there were, the boats stopped coming. There were some, I think four people who had arrived by boat in detention in Australia at that point in time. There are now, since that time there has been 12,000 people, after the Labor Party changed the system that worked, and frankly we were never going to support the Malaysian solution, it’s a terrible solution and I would be fascinated to see whether Kate Ellis, for instance, in the electorate of Adelaide, is happy to go and tell her electorate that she wants to send children to Malaysia. 

 

Jamie Briggs, Julia Gillard this morning on Melbourne radio, on ABC radio in Melbourne is saying there is one person to blame if the boats start coming, and she expects they will, and that is Tony Abbott. 

 

Well Julia Gillard has just lost control. I mean she is quite obviously the worst Prime Minister the country has ever had. I heard...

 

Well you would say that though. I mean you hardly would like to say she is the best, or even you know in the top five. 

 

Well let’s look at the result here. I mean this is a Government who talk about the vote on this bill yesterday, Julia Gillard herself said she wanted to see all Coalition Members vote in the Parliament on this issue as recently as Monday, and yet it was the Government who refused to have a vote on this bill yesterday when they worked out they didn’t have the numbers. It is incompetence at a level we have never seen. And the consequence are that we face, the consequence are that the country faces increased pressure from more boats arriving because of this stuff up because the Labor Party changed the law in the first place. 

 

Jamie Briggs, thank you for talking to us. Liberal Member for Mayo. His seat takes in the Inverbrackie detention centre.